Township entrepreneurs battle to keep their doors open with access to information and financial assistance among the major challenges they have to contend with.
In an effort to help them, Site C Business Forum held a full-day workshop for entrepreneurs with one of the leading banks at Moses Mabhida library last Thursday, April 3.
The aim was to afford business owners an opportunity to establish relationships with the bank and ask critical questions about ways to grow their businesses and assets.
Business people from all works of life joined a full-day informative business workshop aimed at helping entrepreneurs manage their business finances better.
Image: Siyavuya Khaya
Site C Business Forum deputy chairperson Chwayita Koncoshe said the forum was established in 2022 to provide a platform and space for entrepreneurs.
She said the harsh reality was that many businesses had closed due to lack of support and access to information.
Ms Koncoshe said there are many businesses in the township which have the potential to grow; they just need a push in the right direction and workshops such as these aim to provide that much-needed elevation.
“We often feel that banks do not support local businesses and we wanted to pose such questions and get answers. We want to understand what kind of paperwork and documents one needs in order to get a business deal from the bank.
"We want people to register their businesses so that they could be able to get funding from the government as well. We want to elevate small business in our communities and we do that through making meaningful partnerships with every stakeholder. We want to see each and every business which is our member, grow,” she said.
One of the business people who attended the event, Nyameko Mvinjelwa, said such workshops are critical as they allow them to learn more of how the bank supports local entrepreneurs.
He said for years they only saw banks as institutions which keep their money and nothing beyond that.
Mr Mvinjelwa said such workshops also help you take a step back to scrutinise your business and see how to realign it with market trends
He said he is in the transportation industry and such workshops help entrepreneurs evolve and see which opportunities he can use to grow his fleet.
Standard Bank provincial head enterprise director, Nqobile Nzuza, said as the institution they believe that small businesses have the potential to grow and become a big market and could create employment opportunities.
She said they were intentional about their visit to Site C and the key message they wanted to share with the small entrepreneurs was to help them with ways of how to manage their finances so that they could grow their businesses.
“We want them to formalise their businesses and manage their finances. In many cases we establish that people have been running a business for years but they have only recently registered their business. The biggest misconception is that banks charge black people more interest compared to white people,” she said.